Rudi’s Gluten Free Bakery is proud to announce the success of the consumer outreach program. These past few weeks Rudi’s has been sending out Excitement Kits to select Celiac group leaders to introduce their group to Rudi’s Gluten Free breads. In this kit we provided a Rudi’s lunch box, information on the breads, and fun swag. We have been receiving an overwhelming response from the group leaders requesting samples at their next group meeting. Thank you Celiac support members for helping make our program a huge success. If you live in the Denver area, don’t miss the Denver chapter Celiac Sprue Association meeting on February 3rd. Rudi’s will be there along with several other gluten free brands giving out samples.

Don’t forget to check out our website on the latest Gluten Free events near you. Rudi’s is excited to be attending the Celiac Awareness Tour that hits the Midwest January 29th. We’ll be teaming up with the Celiac Awareness Tour on their 6 city tour starting in Pittsburgh and ending in Rocky River, OH. We are also gearing up for this year’s Gluten Free Cooking Expo in Chicago, IL in April. We’re excited to be apart of this great event that brings healthy gluten free vendors and cooking classes to the gluten free community. If you live in the area we strongly recommend you checking out this event: http://gfafexpo.com/. Visit our event section for more information on when Rudi’s Gluten Free Bakery will be attending the next Gluten Free event.

Today is the last day to vote for your favorite gluten-free brands in Triumph Dining’s first ever Best of Gluten-Free Awards. The Best of Gluten-Free Awards are Triumph Dining’s way of giving a shout out to the best gluten-free companies and brands. The winners will be determined by popular vote.

To celebrate the launch of our Spread the Bread campaign, our friends at Rudi’s Gluten-free Bakery thought it would be the perfect time to educate (or re-educate) consumers about celiac disease and the NFCA. They have generously asked me to be a guest writer for this exciting online campaign, and it’s a request that I am honored and delighted to fulfill! So, here goes…

First, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Alice Bast. I have celiac disease and am the founder and president of the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA). NFCA’s mission is simple: raise awareness of celiac disease and gluten intolerance and improve the quality of life for those living with these conditions.

NFCA is the product of my own personal experience with celiac disease. Before I was diagnosed, I had suffered through the trauma of delivering a stillbirth, multiple miscarriages and a baby born at only 3 pounds. My teeth were cracking, my hair was falling out and I simply did not know what was wrong. I had been told by 22 physicians that I “looked fine”. Some actually suggested that I consult a psychiatrist.

At last, our family veterinarian suggesting that I might not be able to digest gluten. With her help, the 23rd doctor diagnosed the cause of all of my persistent health problems, including stillbirths and miscarriages, as a “rare” autoimmune disease called celiac sprue.” I learned that there are no pharmaceutical cures for celiac disease, and a 100% gluten-free diet is the only existing treatment.

Imagine that! All of this heartache and ill health could have been avoided by a simple change in diet! I became determined to find a way to spare other families from having experiences such as mine. So, in 2003, I established NFCA with the goal of driving diagnosis of celiac disease in America. Our aim is to gain a diagnosis for 1 million people in the next five years.

A bit of background…

Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that can cause serious problems if even the smallest amount of gluten – a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley – is digested. Millions of people struggle with the symptoms of celiac disease before being properly diagnosed. In fact, one in 100 Americans has celiac disease, and 95% of those are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions.

When I was diagnosed with celiac disease, there was a sense of relief knowing what was happening to my body. Then came the panic of wondering how I was going to deal with it! What foods can I eat? Am I going to spend the majority of my time in the kitchen trying to prepare them? Where do I turn for food that is safe?

Fortunately, with growing education and awareness of celiac disease and gluten intolerance on the rise, the number of great-tasting, safe gluten-free products available to consumers also has increased. In fact, the gluten-free marketplace is expected to reach $2.6 billion by 2012, thanks to new vendors manufacturing better tasting and more affordable products.

This is where the Rudi’s Gluten-free Bakery comes in! Rudi’s is helping those with celiac disease and gluten intolerance enjoy the same wonderful foods they did before becoming diagnosed by giving them the gift of delicious, nutritious, safe gluten-free bread.

NFCA has worked closely with Rudi’s since the development of their delicious sandwich bread line began. I remember first meeting Rudi’s own Doug Radi, VP of Marketing, at the 2008 National Restaurant Association Show. We share similar passions, health, fun and great food. A year later, Doug made the trip from Colorado to Philadelphia to unveil his perfect gluten-free sandwich bread.

It was love at first bite! Tears came to my eyes. Wow! I immediately picked up a knife and spread almond butter across the bread without the bread falling apart in my hands…. YUMMY!

And because of their generosity and commitment to the gluten-free community, Rudi’s has partnered with NFCA to increase education and diagnosis of celiac disease through a national coupon program, Spread the Bread.

In collaboration with this fantastic company, we aim to bring even more awareness, faster diagnoses and greater understanding to celiac disease, as well as offer solutions to those who are newly diagnosed, so that they may restore their health and regain their lives through a gluten-free lifestyle!

We are on a mission to educate primary care physicians about celiac disease. In doing this, we can prevent the unnecessary suffering of millions and billion of dollars wasted due to the lack of diagnosis.

Grate the zucchini into a bowl using the large grating side of a box grater. Immediately stir in the onion and eggs. Stir in 6 tablespoons of the flour, the baking powder, salt, and pepper. (If the batter gets too thin from the liquid in the zucchini, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour.)

Heat a large (10 to 12-inch) saute pan over medium heat and melt 1/2 tablespoon butter and 1/2 tablespoon oil together in the pan. When the butter is hot but not smoking, lower the heat to medium-low and drop heaping soup spoons of batter into the pan. Cook the pancakes about 2 minutes on each side, until browned. Place the pancakes on a sheet pan and keep warm in the oven. Wipe out the pan with a dry paper towel, add more butter and oil to the pan, and continue to fry the pancakes until all the batter is used. The pancakes can stay warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes. Serve hot.

What a week it has been! We launched our Spread the Bread program on Monday and have been busy ever since keeping up with all the chatter that has been going on around it.

If you have not already heard, Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery is partnering with the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) on a national coupon program, Spread the Bread. For every dollar coupon downloaded, Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery will give a dollar to The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) to help in their efforts to better educate physicians in the diagnosis of celiac disease. There are an estimated 3 million people in the United States suffering from celiac disease, yet only 160,000 are diagnosed.

We send our appreciation out to all of those bloggers and organizations that have given us their support. Check out these great sites to see what they have to say…

At Rudi’s Gluten-Free, we’re proud to enthusiastically be part of the active local and national gluten-free community. In 2010, we hit the road to share a slice at everything from support group meetings, to 5k races benefitting gluten-free causes, vendor fairs and national celiac and gluten-free events, like the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America’s (GIG) Annual Education Conference.

We were especially excited to make some terrific new friends along the way in Denver and Philadelphia.

The weekend following our dinner, we hit the road in our famed Loafswagon with the Root Down staff to serve up the same tasty gourmet gluten-free grilled cheese sandwiches and gluten-free bread pudding at the annual Denver Metro Chapter #17 of CSA’s 4th Annual Incredible Edible Gluten Free Food Fair, see video.

In late October, we visited Philadelphia to participate in the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness’ (NFCA) annual Appetite for Awareness (A4A), a prestigious gluten-free event dedicated to raising awareness of celiac disease and the gluten-free diet, where we sampled tasty gluten-free grilled cheese and PB&J sandwiches, see video. The morning of the event, we also hosted a special gluten-free brunch at 10 Arts Bistro & Lounge where we served Rudi’s Gluten-Free French Toast . During the brunch, 10 Arts Bistro & Lounge’s gluten-sensitive pastry chef, Chef Monica Glass, provided a special presentation about being a gluten-free pastry chef and also provided our guests with some tasty gluten-free sweets at the end of our meal. We were also lucky to be joined by NFCA’s founder and president, Alice Bast.

We’ll be hitting the road again in 2011 to continue to help drive awareness of celiac disease, gluten-intolerance and the tasty gluten-free diet. Check our events page often to see where we’ll be headed next.

We’ve made many friends along the way in the celiac and gluten-free community. Our friends include a mix of bloggers, chefs, nutritionists, those living with celiac disease, along with their friends and family, and many more. We are excited by all the stories and experiences we have heard about over the last year that we want to share them with you. Each week we will host a guest blogger to share their insights, recipes, and stories.

Our first guest blogger, and good friend to Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery, is Paul Biscione. Paul is an avid cook, father and husband to two lovely gluten-free gals, author of the cookbook Loving Food Again, and writer for his blogFood Living and Everything Else.

GF Cornbread Topped Chicken Pot Pie by Paul Biscione

When it comes to comfort food, there is little competition for the almighty Chicken Pot Pie. It sticks to every rib you have, fills you up and leaves a silly satisfied looking grin on your face after you eat it. It is a one dish meal complete with veggies, meat and of course that awesome pie crust. And while all of these things combined make for a perfect meal, my wife and daughter cannot chow down on this comfort food as it is loaded with gluten. Besides the pie crust, the filling uses regular all purpose flour to thicken it, both of which contain gluten. So like all other gluten containing foods that my daughter and wife cannot have, I find that this just won’t do. The little voice in my head that says “you have been challenged” goes off…so I get to work.

As usual, my love for my girls lends to my utter determination to bang out a gluten free version of a dish identical to its gluten containing counterpart, which most people who have no allergies or intolerances can enjoy readily. I am not going to lie here, my goal in life is to make foods everyone can enjoy regardless of what issues they may have. Heck, if I had a restaurant and someone came in with a list of food restrictions I would still find a way to make them some sort of version of what they want. What can I say, I want to make sure no one goes hungry ever.

At first, I thought this recipe would be a no brainer for me, but I was wrong. The issue does not lie in the filling, but in the pie crust. As you may recall, I have said many times” I don’t bake” and that has not changed much over the last few months. So without the pie crust, what is a pot pie really? Then I remembered that recently I have had been in communication with Cybele Pascal, who is a baker and cookbook author, who helped me resolve an issue I was having with cornbread. Long story short, I was using the wrong gluten free flour, she put me on the right path and my family has been enjoying gluten, dairy and egg free cornbread for a while now. So instead of making a pot pie with a traditional pie crust, I decided to go with a cornbread topped version. This allowed me to make this pot pie without having to do any pie crust kneading or primping. Just make the filling, pour on the topping and bake it!

This version of chicken pot pie will also be dairy, egg, soy and nut free as well as gluten free. I am using rice milk and coconut milk in place of regular milk, however you can use regular milk in equal parts to what I use to make this and it will come out the same (coconut milk is not considered a nut. If it is to you do not use it).

DO FIRST: make your chicken breasts ahead of time. Fill a pot of water big enough to fit the 2 chicken breasts, bring the pot to a boil and boil the breasts for 8 minutes. Turn the flame off and leave the breasts in the pot covered for another 5 minutes. Remove them from the water and let cool in the fridge for about 20 to 30 minutes (or overnight). This makes them easy to cube.

1. Preheat the oven to 400°

2. In a large pot over a medium-low flame, sauté the onions, carrots, celery and thyme in 6 tbsp of olive oil until soft; about 5 minutes (if using fresh thyme, remove them after the veggies have sweat before going to the next step).

3. Add the flour and stir it around to combine with the vegetables; about 30 seconds.

4. Raise the heat to medium-high, add the chicken stock and stir to dissolve the flour into the liquid until smooth.

5. Lower the heat to medium and add the rice milk and coconut milk until combined with the mixture and starts to thicken; about 2 minute.

6. Let mixture sit in the pot covered until you make the cornbread topping (See Cybele Pascal’s Cornbread recipe below)

8. Pour ¾ of the cornbread topping batter directly on top of the chicken pot pie mixture in the baking dish. Use a spatula and gently spread the batter out to cover the filling. You are looking for a thin layer of batter (do not use all the batter or the topping will be too thick).

9. Bake on the bottom rack at 400° for 35 minutes (or until the top is slightly browned).

3. In a small bowl, combine egg replacer with 4 tbsp rice milk and whisk until dissolved. Add the egg replacer mixture to the rice milklemon mixture along with canola oil.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth.

PLEAE NOTE: The recipe ingredients above are courtesy of Cybele Pascal. Her full recipe and how to make this cornbread on its own are on her website and can be found at the link below in my resource section.

ADDITIONALLY: as I only use ¾ of the cornbread batter, I do not waste the extra cornbread mixture. I put the remaining mixture into greased muffin tins and bake along with the pot pie (same cooking time would apply).

Cooking Quick Tip:When I make this recipe I like to be organized because I am working with two different recipes. Before I start on my chicken pot pie filling, I put all of the dry ingredients for the cornbread together in a mixing bowl and all other wet ingredients premeasured and waiting for me. It allows me to leave the pot pie filling on the stove and whip up the cornbread batter in no time at all with less mess.

Here at Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery, we’re committed to giving back to the gluten-free community by creating great-tasting gluten-free breads, and also by working with local and national gluten-free organizations. We’re very excited to announce our partnership with the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) on a Spread the Bread charitable program launching today!

For every dollar coupon redeemed by customers, Rudi’s Gluten-Free Bakery will give a dollar, up to $20,000, to NFCA to help in their efforts to better educate physicians in the diagnosis of Celiac disease through its Continuing Medical Education program.

There are an estimated 3 million people in the United States suffering from celiac disease, yet only 160,000 are diagnosed. We hope that by working with organizations like NFCA, we can raise the number of people diagnosed and bring greater awareness to the signs and symptoms of celiac disease.